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One of the best perks of loyalty to an airline and elite status (earned after flying at least 25,000 miles/year) is the complimentary upgrades. Domestically, all top-tier elites across the airlines are upgraded in a relatively similar manner: if there's space available on a flight, the most loyal frequent flyers get to move up to first class. Internationally, however, upgrades are treated differently. Since business and first class seats between countries can often sell for tens of thousands of dollars, airlines are reluctant to give away "free" upgrades, instead preferring to provide a bigger incentive for passengers to pay cash.

Needless to say, there are still a few ways to get into a premium cabin without paying full price -- provided there is actual space in the cabin. One mechanism is through a mileage upgrade. After booking the right revenue ticket, it's often possible to use accrued airline miles to move into a nicer cabin. One must be careful, however, to book a ticket into the correct fare class. "Deeply discounted" economy fares are often ineligible for mileage upgrades, so many find this upgrade option to be prohibitively expensive. Each airline also has different rules and rates for the upgrades, which can be very complex -- try checking the American rules, Delta rules and United rules respectively.

Another mechanism, reserved only for the highest elites, allows for measured complimentary upgrades -- even on international fights. Airlines award these upgrades, often called System Wide Upgrades (SWU) to their top tier members as a reward for reaching the highest status tiers, and they're among the most cherished and useful instruments. Interestingly, the upgrades are also often shareable, which we'll cover below, but each airline has strict rules on what fares can be upgraded. Ranked by ease of use, each legacy SWU instrument is detailed below.

departing LAX (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

American Airlines

American's top tier (Executive Platinum) members are given 8 system wide upgrades called EVIPs every year when they reach 100,000 flown miles. These upgrades can be used to upgrade almost any paid fare with very few restrictions. A $900 ticket from New York to Rio de Janeiro, for example, can be upgraded to what would effectively be a $12,000 ticket with an EVIP.

One exception to the EVIP (and to upgrades across the board, in fact) is that the instruments can't be used on an award ticket. So if a traveler spends 20,000 miles to book a ticket to Brazil, an EVIP cannot be applied.

United Airlines

The Global Premier Upgrade or GPU is United's instrument for upgrading its top tier (1K) elites. Instead of full use on all of its international revenue fares, however, the upgrades are only useful on a portion of tickets. Depending on the itinerary, the minimum upgradeable fare may be 20-50% more expensive than the deeply-discounted economy fare -- the onus is on the passenger to find the right ticket.

United has a guide to which fares are upgradeable on their site. With enough creative routing and searching, it's usually possible to find an upgradeable ticket for a resaonable price.

Among the three legacy carriers, Delta's international upgrades are the most restrictive. Like United, Delta only allows their SWUs to be used on certain fares, but unlike its competitors, the airline only allows its highest-priced economy tickets to be upgraded. Passengers wishing to use their SWUs thus have to book a relatively expensive ticket prior to even applying the upgrade.

A sample ticket between New York City and Rio de Janiero shows the difference. While the least-expensive upgradeable ticket on American costs just under $1000, to upgrade on Delta, a traveler will have to pay at least $3700. Business class on that same route costs only $300 more.

Sharing Upgrades

Perhaps the best feature about SWUs on United and American is that they can be transferred. If a top-tier elite on United has a loved one traveling on an upgradeable ticket, he or she can call the airline and upgrade that person. Delta restricts its upgrades to the upgrade account holder and anyone flying on the same record locator.

It's worth noting at this point that it is against the terms and conditions of each mileage program to sell upgrades -- but that doesn't stop many from listing or buying upgrades online. Both American EVIPs and United GPUs are widely available on Craigslist.